Polarization analysis of CuXX-lines emitted from X-pinch

International audienceSoft x-ray emission from CuXX L-shell lines emitted by a dense X-pinch plasma have been investigated with high-resolution curved Bragg crystals at different angles of orientation. Single shot time integrated spectra show clear evidences of polarization for the Ne-like spectral lines 2s22p6 1S0 → 2s22p53s 1P1 (λ = 12.570 Å), 2s22p6 1S0 → 2s22p53s 3P1 (λ = 12.8277 Å). The variation of the intensity ratio of these two well-separated L-shell lines is discussed in view of its application for suprathermal electron characterization under real experimental conditions of pinch plasmas. We demonstrated that the simultaneous use of two different polarization spectrometers (means 4 Bragg crystals) permitted a high level of confidence for the analysis of the variation of the line ratios due to polarization

Time-of-flight methodologies with large-area diamond detectors for ion characterization in laser-driven experiments

The time-of-flight technique coupled with semiconductor detectors is a powerful instrument to provide real-time characterization of ions accelerated because of laser-matter interactions. Nevertheless, the presence of strong electromagnetic pulses (EMPs) generated during the interactions can severely hinder its employment. For this reason, the diagnostic system must be designed to have high EMP shielding. Here we present a new advanced prototype of detector, developed at ENEA-Centro Ricerche Frascati (Italy), with a large-area (15 mm × 15 mm) polycrystalline diamond sensor having 150 μm thickness. The tailored detector design and testing ensure high sensitivity and, thanks to the fast temporal response, high-energy resolution of the reconstructed ion spectrum. The detector was offline calibrated and then successfully tested during an experimental campaign carried out at the PHELIX laser facility (100 J, fs, W/cm2) at GSI (Germany). The high rejection to EMP fields was demonstrated and suitable calibrated spectra of the accelerated protons were obtained